erogo

Forms

ērogō (present infinitive ērogāre, perfect active ērogāvī, supine ērogātum); first conjugation^[1] Festus has exrogāre.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin ex- + rogō (“to ask”).^[2][1] Lewis & Short explain it as a term of public law, to pay out money from the treasury after asking the people's consent.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero asks Vatinius whether he paid out money from the treasury under his own laws.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to pay out or expend public money, originally after a rogātiō had been passed;^[2][3] Livy uses it too.^[2][3] It is then any spending, and the use of something for a purpose: Valerius Maximus has a man always busier paying out money than getting it, and figuratively one giving up his life for his parents.^[2][1] In Frontinus it is said of water distributed from an aqueduct.^[2][1] Apuleius uses it of begging alms at the crossroads, and Festus defines it as removing something from an old law by a new one.^[2] Church Latin glosses it distribute, pay out, bequeath.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero of public money.^[2][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy.^[3]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of begging alms.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pay out, disburse, expend public money; to spend; to use for a purpose.^[2][3][1][4]
2. To deliver water from a reservoir or aqueduct.^[2][1]
3. To obtain by entreaty; to prevail on by entreaty.^[2][1]
4. To remove a provision of an old law by a new law.^[2]
5. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To distribute; to bequeath.^[4]

Word family

• ērogātiō
• ērogātor
• superērogō
• ērogātōrius

Related words

• rogō
• rogātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson